Making Your Organization THE Place to Be

Background

The Netflix Freedom & Responsibility Culture Deck has been hailed as one of the most important documents to come out of Silicon Valley. Its origins, however, were much less aspirational. For Reed Hastings and Patty McCord, it was an iterative tool. It was not designed to be pretty or to have a place on the world stage. It was an attempt to define what Netflix was as a company – not in terms of a business plan or strategy, but from a “people perspective.” It was an effort to articulate all they had learned about what it takes to create a high performing culture. It also sent a message to both current and potential employees: “If you want to work for Netflix, here’s what you’re in for. If this doesn’t look like something you want to be a part of, then Netflix is not for you.”

Instructions

The work you have been doing in the HR concentration of your MBA program has been getting a lot of attention around the office lately. You’ve been having some great conversations with colleagues and challenging the perceptions of what HR can do as a strategic growth driver in the organization. In fact, all this buzz has caught the attention of your CEO.

Your first meeting with the Executive Team in which you discussed your HR Snapshot and presented a candid view of the needs and opportunities (Assignment #1) was well received. You have been asked to meet again with the Executive Team and share your ideas of what else HR can do to make your organization the place to be. The CEO has heard you talking about the Netflix Freedom & Responsibility Culture Deck, and has asked you to lead a meeting to discuss whether something like that would be an effective tool in defining and communicating the cultural and talent management principles in your own organization.

You have decided to organize your PowerPoint presentation into two parts:

1. In the first part of your presentation, you will present an analysis of the Netflix Freedom & Responsibility Culture Deck to share with the CEO and Executive Team. In drafting your analysis, your objective is not to just re-state its contents, but to present your professional assessment of the practices you feel are most worth discussing.

1. Identify the three most exciting or unusual practices in the deck (using one slide for each). Explain why you selected them and the potential benefits and challenges of implementing these practices. Note: In choosing the practices you want to focus on, you are not necessarily endorsing them. You may argue for or against the ideas.

1. You also know that your CEO has studied the people management teachings of Jack Welch and that the three practices you’ve chosen to focus on may differ from those he advocates. As you present each slide, compare and contrast these and explain which approach would be more effective and why. For example, does a particular practice work better for a certain type of organization or workforce over another such as:

▪ Tech versus industrial

▪ Multi-national versus domestic ▪ Millennials versus older workers

2. For the second part of your presentation, outline your recommendations for talent management practices that could be a springboard in transforming your organization into the place to be. You can organize this part of your deck as you see fit, but it must have the following:
3. Include no more than 3 transformative practices (these could be practices presented in the NFRCD or they could be different practices)
4. Explain:
5. i. How the ideas you are presenting will transform your organization ii. What it will take to implement them, including:

•      team structures that may need to be changed •        management capabilities

•      compensation and access to talent pools •        timelines and milestones for a rollout

iii. If applicable, also explain why you are not advocating some ideas presented in the Netflix Freedom & Responsibility Culture Deck

1. How success and ROI will be measured

3. You know you have to get the Executive Team excited, so have some fun. Be bold, but not reckless. Explain why your ideas are right for your company, the labor market in which you compete and how they relate to the current culture and norms. Bring your enthusiasm and show your 4 E’s + P (HINT: review Winning if you forget what these are).

Submission Requirements

•      Your submission for this assignment will be in the form of a recorded presentation delivered via Zoom.

•      Must include a PowerPoint deck of 8 to 10 slides addressing the required components as outlined above.

•      Even though this is a presentation and not a paper, you are expected to demonstrate mastery of the materials and include citations to support any sources, figures or references you use.

•              The presentation must be between 8 and 10 minutes in length, demonstrate strong executive presence and be delivered in a professional manner appropriate for a C-Suite meeting.